- Identify your core values.
- Identify the values of your allies, even if you disagree on a few issues
- Identify the values of your opponents.
- Learn the language of your values and those of your opponents.
- Overlay your language with theirs until you find matches.
- Subvert that language for your values.
“Patriotic Americans”, for example, might highly esteem the Pledge of Allegiance.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Key language here might be ‘pledge’, ‘allegiance’, ‘Republic’, ‘liberty’, and ‘justice’. All of those words can be made to fit into the liberal/progressive lexicon with no dishonesty or inauthenticity. That they’ve been co-opted by the Right is not a problem; quite the contrary, it ends up working for us. The L/P agenda can be made to fit into the Conservative frame…
Consider this exchange from twitter:
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I’m not a Dem. I voted for you. I can’t believe you & GOP refuse to repeal Obamacare. A partial fix was Hillary’s plan. Disgraceful!!
Health is liberty and medical care for all is a value of strong, patriotic progressives. If you love freedom, join us.
—–
There’s no need to pivot, even. You just grab the language of the opposition – essentially, the attack (to carry the Judo metaphor) – and help the attacker move past you and to the floor. In the exchange above, Trump uses “Obamacare” (an artificial conservative frame) and links it to “premium and deductible increases” and links “healthcare” to “GOP” without discussing any specifics of what AHCA does. Motorrad Guy replies that he wanted the ACA repealed and links “partial fixes” to “Hillary’s plan” which is tacitly linked to the Democrat plan, agenda, or morality in the Conservative mind.
So…my reply. No pivot, which would have looked something like “there’s no denying Obamacare needed fixing, but what’s really important here is that we need to do it without Americans losing their healthcare coverage. Under Trumpcare, 22 million Americans lose their healthcare.”
That’s actually not a bad response. It hits “Trumpcare” and pivots away from the MG’s negative focus on a liberal policy. A better pivot response would include more pejorative language for Trumpcare, more positive language for Americans. Add “working Americans”, “hard working Americans”, “all hard working Americans,” “proud blue collar Americans,” etc. (I like that last one). Trumpcare needs to be linked to “loss”, but in addition to “proud, hard working blue collar Americans” it should have “are hurt when they lose their healthcare under Trump’s GOP insurance grab.” Mmm…there’s a theft link in there, too. “Grab”, “snatch”, “theft”, “stealing health”…those are all evocative.
The twitter reply, however, is even better. It grabs the language of the conservative moral frame: “liberty”, “strong”, “patriot”, “freedom”. It’s succinct, less than 140 characters even, I believe. There’s no explicit pivot; it just starts at the turn. There’s no explanation. There’s no defense (or even mention) of Obamacare, Clinton, etc. There isn’t even a strong logical link to MR’s reply other than “health care” but that’s perfect. The twitter reply does nothing to reinforce the frame in play.
Rinse. Repeat. Ad infinitum.
***
It’s right out of Rove’s playbook. It’s high time we start learning from our enemy instead of just wasting time and energy trying to fight off every blow. Better just to step aside and help them to the ground.
“When you’re explaining yourself, you’re losing.”
– Al Franken
No more explaining. No more playing defense.
Hella. Period. 